It seems my grandma is near the end. The final decline was surprising in its totality. Last Thursday night, she was talking, watching TV, fairly with-it. Within 12 hours she had entered a semi-comatic state and has been lingering ever since. We've been with her daily and I'm very grateful for the scant hours of lucidity she has given us. A lot of it has been babble that seems connected to her childhood ("Tell Mom I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make her angry!" and the like) but interspersed have been touching comments, always with a thin smile, like "Hi Michael, I love you."
This is the first time I've been around a dying relative. I just hope she passes on soon so that the ordeal is over, mostly for her sake but also for ours. It's beyond agonizing.

Sorry Mike. That's brutal. I've lived this with my grandfather and father. It's truly gut-wrenching, but as others have said, you'll be glad you were there and you'll learn a lot of compassion for others' plights.

I'm in the same boat Conne. I saw my grandmother on Saturday. I think it is going to be the last time I see her unfortunately. It was horrible seeing her in the condition she was in. It seems like when you get near the end things go downhill extremely fast. Just last year we were all out to dinner laughing drink wine and now this.

my sister (a very headstrong and impulsive woman in her 40's) just called. told me that she bought my brother and I tickets to see my mother and father next month. I was the last to be informed.

she just wanted to surprise everyone to have an impromptu reunion of sorts.

the part that pisses me off is that she just went and bought these tickets without even checking with our schedules, the prices for the tickets (totally overpriced, bought on credit which she can't afford, and bad flight times ect). She did this because she expects/assumes that I'm going to cover the cost of all the tickets after the fact. Now I have to carve two weeks out of my schedule, inform my wife (who's going to be pissed - because she can't get off work since its so impromptu).

this isn't an easy flight - its halfway across the world.

there's going to be a ton of drama in the next couple of days. i haven't told my wife yet because we've got a trip this weekend and I don't want to deal with her being pissed the whole time, and then dealing with my sister who's going to be angry because I'm not totally grateful/supportive/happy with her "present" to me (that I'll eventually have to pay for).

^condolences
my sister (a very headstrong and impulsive woman in her 40's) just called. told me that she bought my brother and I tickets to see my mother and father next month. I was the last to be informed.
she just wanted to surprise everyone to have an impromptu reunion of sorts.
the part that pisses me off is that she just went and bought these tickets without even checking with our schedules, the prices for the tickets (totally overpriced, bought on credit which she can't afford, and bad flight times ect). She did this because she expects/assumes that I'm going to cover the cost of all the tickets after the fact. Now I have to carve two weeks out of my schedule, inform my wife (who's going to be pissed - because she can't get off work since its so impromptu).
this isn't an easy flight - its halfway across the world.
there's going to be a ton of drama in the next couple of days. i haven't told my wife yet because we've got a trip this weekend and I don't want to deal with her being pissed the whole time, and then dealing with my sister who's going to be angry because I'm not totally grateful/supportive/happy with her "present" to me (that I'll eventually have to pay for).

Sisters do stupid shit sometimes and do a good job guilting you if you disagree with them.

Sisters do stupid shit sometimes and do a good job guilting you if you disagree with them.

I'm already pissed at the part when the family is all together eating dinner (after I probably return all the tickets, re-purchase all the tickets with better schedules/flight times) and my sister pulls off a "see wasn't it all worth it?" speech.

Edit: The wife just called and I had to explain the situation and about the "plans" for next month. She coolly just hung up the phone. Gawd this weekend's trip is most likely ruined.

I'm in the same boat Conne. I saw my grandmother on Saturday. I think it is going to be the last time I see her unfortunately. It was horrible seeing her in the condition she was in. It seems like when you get near the end things go downhill extremely fast. Just last year we were all out to dinner laughing drink wine and now this.

A few months back, I mentioned an issue I've had for years with one of my legs/feet. A couple of months ago, I saw a podiatrist to see if that type of doc would be useful for getting it sorted out. One of the treatments he suggested was these little inserts that go in the heel of my shoe. I started wearing them immediately, and they seemed to help with the pain in my bad leg, but I noticed that I was now getting some pain in my good leg. I mentioned this at my follow up, and the doc said something along the lines of, "that's OK. It's probably just your body getting used to the inserts." Yeah, well, that might be the case, but the pain in my good leg continued to get worse. Then, I took a look at the inserts, and they had shifted funny on that side, moving my heel in a weird direction. This has had the effect of screwing with my gait, so now my whole (formerly) good side is killing me - everything from my foot to my back hurts. Now I have to go back to the doctor on Monday and say "WTF, I told you this was a problem, and now it's killing me."

FFS, I just want this to be fixed, and now the treatment hurts more than the original problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH

I'm in the same boat Conne. I saw my grandmother on Saturday. I think it is going to be the last time I see her unfortunately. It was horrible seeing her in the condition she was in. It seems like when you get near the end things go downhill extremely fast. Just last year we were all out to dinner laughing drink wine and now this.

Sorry to hear this, pB. I hope you're able to take solace in the good memories.

this pales in comparison but one of my pet peeves is people who go through life without respect for other people or their property. someone left a fucking door ding in my car last night. it was a restaurant parking lot so he could have found me if he wanted, and I parked at least 6 feet from his car so he really would have had to try to hit my car.

it's easily fixed, but I try very hard to be considerate of other people's vehicles, so it infuriates me (but doesn't surprise me) to not receive the same consideration